Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-01-26
YOUNG WOMEN'S VICES.
Nym Orinkle Tells Some Stories
About the Drug Habit
The Morphine Giri-vIctims OF Nicotine.
Nitrate of Silver. Arsenic and Beiiadon-
na-Various Symptoms by Which
They May be Recognised.
TNym Cr,nkIe, in St. Louis Republican. |

Inc IasnlOnaDle borgiaS or to-day con-
fine their operations to themselves. Thev
are mefho lical suicides. Nobody but the
physician knows how many women are
dying of drugs. Morphine, arsenic, hy-
drate of chloral, absynthe and quinine are
the favorites, but white lead, nitrate of
silver and nicotine count up their victims
by hundreds.
The morphine girl is the worst case of
all. In the theatrical profession there are
at least twenty well-known actresses who
who are its victims. They are hopeless.
Not one case IN a hundred, where the hab-
it is confirmed, is cured. To escape from
the clutches of alcohol after a life of dissi-
patton is child's play to the terrible fight
that this monster makes.
A prominent physician told me not long
ago that the use of the hypodermic syringe
had got to be so common among q certain
class of women that morphine was as
sumed in almost every attempt to treat
them.
was shown a few weeks ago the body
of a very beautiful girl at the morgue
whose limbs were covered with the marks
of the syringe. And 1 happen to know of
one lady, who is most brillisnt hostess
and n large eutertaiHer, who has to leave
her company and get her dose of NOR
phine. was shown last winter a young
woman, certainly not yet twenty, while in
the pangs of deprivation. She happened
to be in hospital where the most rigid
and, as it proved, the most cruel treatment
was adopted-that of suddenly and abso-
lutely stopping her uss OF the drug. / saw
her in what are called the "morphine
pains." 1t was a horrible parox I'm. She
raved, and blasphemed, and screamed.
The final stages of rabies could not be
worse. She was suffering the most ex-
quisite physical agonies, and could COM
pare it to nothing but being burned to
death.
A year or two ago was led into the in
vestigation of this vice among profess
sional women, and came across two or
three interesting facts that1 have not seen
mentioned by the medical men who have
written on the use of the drug.
] found that in most cases the habit had
been contracted, not as usually stated, in
the desire to escape ply ysical pains, but in
the endeavor to avoid mental trouble
Morphine, like opium, its grosser parent,
is a great remorse killer. 1t Is temporary
Lethe.
There are several women in the dra-
patic profession who have been led into
the morphine habit by mere force of SYM
pathetic imitation. They heard that Miss
So-and-So took morphine, and so they
took it also. This is piece of imbecility
that am glad to say is rare.
There are some symptoms that always
hat tHa f-1 a. l. \
eye. She will not look you squarely in
the face except when she is lying. Her
lids droop, fatal evidence of the loss of
volition. She is clammy, inconsecutive
and dreamy. The first break is in her
logic, generally a weak spot with a wom-
an. She draws the most absurd conclu-
sions and then insists that it is you who
have made the deduction.
The belladonna girl always has hectic
look. Generally she is a girl with light
eyes, and the desire to overcome what she
considers natural defect has led to the
use of Gelladonna to dilate tho pupils.
saw one girl who had poured bella
donna into her eyes till she had lost the
whole "power of accommodation" and
could not tell whether an object was a
foot or a mile off. l have seen another
gray-eyed girl who succeeded in per-
manently increasing the size of only one
pupil.
The arsenic girl is generally n case of
complexion. Tie girl who wishes to pol
son herself with al isenic, buys what is
known at the druggist as "Fowler's solu-
tion," (Liquor potassR arseniiis). Each
fluid drachm of the solu ion contains about
half grain of arsenic and the average
offiiial dose is ten drops two or three
times a doy. Four regular arsenic girls
will take three or four drachms a day.
There was a Hungarian singer who
came here about ten years ago who made
arsenic eating quite popular among a class
of weak women by ascrib!ng to it all sorts
of miracul us properties. She attributed
her W wonderful powers of respiration to its
virtues, and at one time every girl at the
academy had a bottle of Fowler's soiu.
tion In her pocket.
never saw but one arsenic girl. She
openly confessed to six grains a day, AMI
said it did not hurt her. i am unable TO
speak with certainty OF her case, but
think she could have attended any coun-
try picnic and eaten the ice cream with
impunity. don't think the professional
women taks to arsenic. / am tsll Fow-
ler's solution is shop-giPs vice.
The nitrate OF silver girl is, as rule, a
veteran, who has passed safely through
all the other fashionable po' sons, and It
may lie doubted that even this caustic
hurts her much.
The nicotine girl is the cigarette smok.
er, and / believe nearly every actress in
America smokes cigarettes privately. At
all events, have known a great many OF
them, and have vet to meet one who
does not take her Whit and inhale the
smoke.
When they read this they will all rise
up. pt ks the package quickly out Of sight,
and declare with the most solemn indig.
nation that il is n base calumny. You
will find the little jok ers in their dressing
rooms, in their reticules. They drt them
in the coupe. Tbey keep them always
handy for visitors.
have very little to say of this girl. II
some of them would get on the police the
examining physician would throw them
out. i Ielieve that tobacco affects the
organization AMI circulation OF a girl
much quicker than it does q man. And !
am positive that 1t relaxes all the vocal
cords and impairs her voice.
haven't left myself any room to speak
Of the gi who ru.s white lead into be,
pores, and takes hydrate of chloral a,
night to insure sleep. and absy nthe in the
morning TO produce wakrfulness.
haven't dwelt as intended on the .ascin.
aiing dear who eats quinine by the pound
Irthe brave gir. who swallows juripern
berry by the gill.
A couple of London earroters were sen.
fenced TO the gailows. One was a French.
man, the her a Prussian. The fatal